The Devourer Of Worlds Galactus was first introduced in The Fantastic Four #48 and was depicted as a cosmic entity that consumed planets to live. Fast forward to the early 2000s and he appeared in 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four: Rise of Silver Surfer. The only problem? He was depicted as a giant cosmic storm, and not as the menacing human cosmic figure we all know in the movie.
Before becoming the consumer of worlds, Galactus was a space explorer from the planet Taa-an named Galan. He lived during the sixth incarnation of the universe which existed before our Big Bang. During the collapse of the universe, he bonded with Eternity and sat for billions of years in an incubation-type state. This is where he became Galactus. After emerging from his egg of scrap ship parts, he consumed several planets before he and his herald Silver Surfer found Earth, where the Galactus Trilogy played out. Like most comic characters, Galactus is still appearing in comic books.
The early 2000s movies used the same storyline to introduce Silver Surfer and Galactus. In 2007 the Surfer didn’t look bad, but Galactus, who many know as a human-looking entity, appeared as a cosmic storm that resembled a tornado. This not only confused fans of the franchise, but it also disappointed them. However, it isn’t entirely their fault. At this point, superhero movies were still in their early stages of development, and there wasn’t an entirely good model for how to make them like we saw as Marvel started to release their films. The movies were good, but they didn’t have the capabilities that CGI provided to make good-looking characters. Additionally, considering the mess that was Marvel’s selloff of its character rights during the comic book crash, the companies who bought characters could do a lot of what they wanted, and for Fox, that meant making certain elements of their movies look like they occurred naturally. For example, Galactus portrayed a giant cosmic storm that had no resemblance to the actual character. This confused movie watchers worldwide.
As for the attempted 2015 reboot, Galactus never appears. Truthfully, it was because the first movie wasn’t good, and failure to adapt all of the stories they had the rights to scared Fox into not releasing a sequel that would’ve included him. Shortly after, they’d wrap up their involvement in Marvel movie-making with 2019’s Dark Phoenix.
Now flash forward to this year. During the first trailer of 2025’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, we see two shots of Galactus menacingly standing over New York, and yes, he in fact sports his iconic two-horned helmet, and appears in a form more faithful to the comics. He will be played by Ralph Ineson. While the plot isn’t yet clear, it is assumed that we’ll see a similar story as is played out in the original Galactus saga in the comics. Robert Downey Jr.’s Dr. Doom is also expected to appear in a post-credit scene that will set up the next Avengers movie.
Marvel looks to take back its former glory after a rough stretch that has spanned from the post-Endgame era. And with this showcase of Galactus, you can tell they are really trying to do it. We’ll see how it plays out, but for now… Galactus is back!
